Mirahmetjan Muzepper

Mirahmetjan Muzepper (Chinese: 木热合买提江·莫扎帕; pinyin: Mùrèhémǎitíjiāng Mòzhāpà; Uyghur: مىراكھمادژون مۇزاففار; born 14 January 1991 in Kashgar), also known as Metjan (Chinese: 买提江), is a Chinese professional footballer of Uyghur ethnicity who currently plays for Chinese Super League club Shanghai Port. He became the first Uyghur player to play for the China national team in 2018.

Metjan
买提江
Personal information
Full name Mirahmetjan Muzepper
Date of birth (1991-01-14) January 14, 1991
Place of birth Kashgar, Xinjiang, China
Height 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position(s) Midfielder, Left-back
Team information
Current team
 Shanghai Port
Number 25
Youth career
2004–2009 Shandong Luneng
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2010 → Henan Construction (loan) 21 (0)
2011–2013 Shandong Luneng 15 (0)
2014–2016 Henan Jianye 41 (1)
2017–2019 Tianjin TEDA 77 (2)
2020– Shanghai Port 71 (1)
International career‡
2009–2010 China U-20 7 (0)
2010–2012 China U-23 3 (0)
2018– China 7 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 27 August 2023
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 11 June 2019
This article is about a person whose name includes a patronymic. The article properly refers to the person by his given name, Mirahmetjan, and not as Muzepper.

Club career

Mirahmetjan Muzepper grew up from a football family with his father Muzepper and grandfather Zunun Mamut both playing within the Xinjiang region.[1] At a young age he would quickly draw the attentions of Shandong Luneng and join their youth team where he would win several youth championships, which attracted the interests of Henan Construction who took him on loan at the beginning of the 2010 Chinese Super League season where he would make his senior debut in a league game against Jiangsu Sainty on April 18, 2010 that was a 0-0 draw.[2]

After a productive season where Mirahmetjan established himself as a regular for Henan he would return to Shandong at the beginning of the 2011 Chinese Super League and would go on to make his first senior appearance for the club in a league game against Chengdu Blades on April 1, 2011 as a substitute Wang Yongpo in a 3-3 draw.[3] He would only be able to establish himself as a squad player within the team. On 5 January 2014, Mirahmetjan transferred to fellow Chinese Super League side Henan Jianye on a free transfer.[4] On 31 December 2016, Henan Jianye officially confirmed that Muzepper had left the club after a disagreement in negotiations for extending his contract.[5]

On 9 January 2017, Mirahmetjan moved to top tier side Tianjin TEDA.[6] He would make his debut in a league game on 4 March 2017 against his former club Shandong Luneng in a 2-0 defeat.[7] He would go on to establish himself as an integral member of the team and once he started to play more in midfield he would score his first goal for the club in a league game on 6 May 2018 against Guizhou Hengfeng in a 5-1 victory.[8]

After three seasons in Tianjin, Mirahmetjan transferred to Shanghai SIPG (later renamed as Shanghai Port) on 17 January 2020.[9] On 29 June 2023, Mirahmetjan scored his first goal for the club in a 2-1 away win against Beijing Guoan.[10]

International career

Mirahmetjan was called up into China U-20's squad in 2009 where he would take part in the teams 2010 AFC U-19 Championship qualification. After China's successful qualification he would draw significant attention when he became the first Uyghur player to ever be called up to the senior team.[11] The Chinese Head coach Gao Hongbo called him up for several training sessions in preparation for 2010 East Asian Football Championship on the basis of his youth performances, however he did not feature within the tournament. He would return to the Chinese U-20 squad and take part in the 2010 AFC U-19 Championship where he would play in three games and saw China knocked out quarter-finals. After that tournament he was immediately promoted to the Chinese U-23 squad and included in the team that played in the Football at the 2010 Asian Games where he would once more play in three games and see China knocked out in the last sixteen. On 7 September 2018, he made his debut for Chinese national team in a 1–0 away defeat against Qatar, coming on for Gao Lin in the 74th minute,[12] which made him the first Uyghur player to appear for the Chinese national team.[13]

Career statistics

Club statistics

Statistics accurate as of match played 31 January 2023.[14]

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League National Cup Continental Other Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Henan Construction (Loan)2010Chinese Super League210-00-210
Shandong Luneng2011401031-81
20128020--100
20133010--40
Total 150403100221
Henan Jianye2014Chinese Super League16010--170
201513110--141
201612022--142
Total 411420000453
Tianjin TEDA2017Chinese Super League26010--270
201827110--281
201924110--251
Total 772300000802
Shanghai SIPG/
Shanghai Port		2020Chinese Super League1601080-250
20211807000-250
202216010--170
Total 500908000670
Career total 2043202111002356

International statistics
National team
YearAppsGoals
201850
201920
Total70

References
  1. "买提江成维族国青第一人 "新疆王"期盼进国足". sports.163.com. 2009-08-11. Archived from the original on 2011-07-19. Retrieved 2012-08-08.
  2. "0-0 - 比赛结果-中超数据库-搜狐". csldata.sports.sohu.com. 2010-04-18. Retrieved 2012-08-08.
  3. "3-3 - 比赛结果-中超数据库-搜狐". csldata.sports.sohu.com. 2011-04-01. Retrieved 2012-08-08.
  4. 建业宣布签约鲁能边路悍将 另有中甲门神加盟 at sports.qq.com 2014-01-05 Retrieved 2014-01-09(in Chinese)
  5. 建业官宣两将离队：张力赴国安 买提江或签泰达 at sports.sohu.com 2016-12-31 Retrieved 2017-01-03(in Chinese)
  6. 泰达火爆官宣签约11人 3名教练8名球员 at sports.sohu.com 2017-01-09 Retrieved 2017-01-10
  7. "SHANDONG TAISHAN VS. TIANJIN JINMEN TIGER 2 - 0". soccerway.com. 2017-03-04. Retrieved 2022-12-31.
  8. "TIANJIN JINMEN TIGER VS. GUIZHOU 5 - 1". soccerway.com. 2018-05-06. Retrieved 2022-12-31.
  9. 上港官宣买提江加盟 国脚左路多面手增强阵容厚度 (in Chinese)
  10. "国安1-2海港，买提江、吕文君建功，方昊破门，杨立瑜伤退" (in Chinese). Dongqiudi. 29 June 2023. Retrieved 30 June 2023.
  11. "国足名单：维吾尔族国脚鲁能独苗 津川小将首入围". sports.sina.com.cn. 2010-01-21. Retrieved 2012-08-08.
  12. 热身-全场0射正门框2次救险 国足客场0-1卡塔尔. Netease (in Chinese). 2018-09-08. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
  13. 里程碑，买提江成为首位代表国足出战的新疆籍球员. dongqiudi.com (in Chinese). 2018-09-11. Retrieved 2018-09-12.
  14. 买提江 at sodasoccer Retrieved 2018-10-17 (in Chinese) Archived 2018-10-18 at the Wayback Machine
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.